Most-offensive TV commercial ever? (Toys-R-Us)

So Toys R Us puts this commercial together and expects us to embrace them? How long ago was it that Calvin & Hobbes had a few strips censored from some newspapers because they thought Calvin was a symbol for all manner of bad things kids could do? All the while touching on various philosophical, moral & ethical issues? And while Calvin fantasized about the school blowing up, I mean seriously, at some point, who didn’t, it was just that. A fantasy. Calvin knew he had to come back to earth and deal with the real world. And besides, grade school kids weren’t reading Calvin & Hobbes. Their parents were.

But this commercial… is it for real? Is there any other way to see it than having massive disrespect for education and the teaching profession, for the environment, for anything having to do with learning and/or having more lasting value than the latest toy that is designed to break before one is completely bored with it (and realizes that that’s the way it is with most toys?). An endless cycle without substance, leaving you without satisfaction but always wanting something new?

And no, I can’t make any sense of what I’ve written here either. I just know that I found this commercial horribly offensive. –Mike–

“But this commercial… is it for real? Is there any other way to see it than having massive disrespect for education and the teaching profession, for the environment, for anything having to do with learning and/or having more lasting value than the latest toy …”

Maybe one of the kids in the ad will decide to choose a bike for their free toy, then like bike riding so much that they grow up to be a pro bike racer, skip college, put in long hours training and riding their bike, have a short and meaningless career as an unknown middle of the pack racer for an obscure European racing team, wind up jobless, homeless and peniless after they hit middle age and their bike racing fantasy is over, then they have to get a job as manager at a bike shop co-op that sells overpriced coffee and hemp crafts to suburbanite skinny jeans wearing fixie riding hipster douchebags.

Lighten up, Mike… It’s not so bad. Kids like toys. Don’t you? (I know you, and I know you do… you like expensive toys. Stuff that’s new, shiny and fun to play with. From iPhones to Madones, “Mikey likes it.”)